202 THE PROTEOMORPHIC THEORY AND THE NEW MEDICINE 



duced in larger and yet larger phalanxes, disaster must in the 

 end result, since no quantity of white corpuscles could compen- 

 sate altogether for the lack of reds, inasmuch as the red 

 corpuscles alone are capable of dealing with the end-products 

 of protein decompounding. 



The time would come, apparently, when the increase of white 

 corpuscles passes the point of maximum efficiency, the amount 

 of protein papulum for each being so small that a relatively long 

 life is vouchsafed to each white corpuscle before its contents 

 reach the stage of disruptive pressure. There would then be 

 an accumulation of old white corpuscles in the blood, piling up 

 ultimately in such numbers as to produce the enormous counts 

 familiar in advanced stages of leukaemia. 



On the other hand, under such conditions, the protein content 

 of each individual white corpuscle would, on the average, be 

 reduced to an exceedingly low stage of hydrolysis, that is to say, 

 to the lowest stage to which the leucocytic enzymes can reduce 

 it; and, on disruption, the leucocytes would supply the red cor- 

 puscles with, let us say, polypeptids (perhaps dipeptids or mono- 

 peptids), making the smallest possible requirement on their 

 enzymic activities. Should something take place that would 

 cause the disruption even of the major part of the white cor- 

 puscles in a brief period, the amount of toxicity to the nervous 

 system that would result would depend entirely on the equipment 

 of red corpuscles. Moreover, it is not impossible that when the 

 red corpuscles are abundant, their enzymes may have a catalytic 

 effect on the white corpuscles, stimulating them to greater 

 enzymic activity, and thus facilitating their disruption. That 

 some such complementary relation between the red corpuscles 

 and the white exists, might reasonably be expected, similar 

 adjustments between organs of complimentary function being 

 familiar throughout the organism. An agent which stimulated 

 the production of increased members of red corpuscles, or one 

 that increased the enzymic activities of these corpuscles, would 

 thus, secondarily, result in effecting the more rapid decom- 

 pounding of the white corpuscles, thereby reducing their number. 



I am disposed to think that this line of reasoning explains the 

 rapid decrease of white corpuscles in the case above cited. 

 It will be recalled that coincidentally with this decrease in white 

 corpuscles there was an increase of red corpuscles from 3,850,000 

 to 5,012,000, an increase, in other words, of more than 30 per 

 cent. The size and quality of the individual corpuscle were more 

 than correspondingly enhanced, so it may plausibly be assumed 

 that the enzymic capacities and activities of the red corpuscles 

 as a whole were measurably doubled. The increased red cell 

 enzymes stimulating white cell catabolism, and the red cells now 



